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Sunday, June 28, 2015

The Supreme Court of the United States has just legalized gay marriage, by prohibiting states from making it illegal. This is clearly a "step forward" in terms of personal freedom: same-sex couples who marry may now have the same legal status in the eye of the State as heterosexual couples. It is, however, a case of the plantation master granting partial freedom to his slaves, as opposed to freeing them entirely.

Marriage, by libertarian thinking, should not be subject to the State at all. It has been and should be primarily a social institution, defined by the church or other non-State social institutions. The only reason the institution of marriage has come under the control of the State to begin with? To prevent "miscegenation". The mixing of races is no longer considered in the US to be an occurrence that needs to be curtailed. Had State control of marriage dissolved along with the ideology that brought it into being, all of the recent and upcoming brouhaha about the definition of marriage would likely be nonexistent. Voluntarily-formed communities would decide their own definitions of marriage rather than fighting over what single definition should be enforced by the guns of the State on everyone without exception.

Having gotten the obligatory rant out of the way, we now turn our attention to the somewhat interesting astrology of the announcement of the ruling. I couldn't find a time, but "10am" seems like a pretty good guess because an early news story that day has a posting-time of shortly after that. I'm guessing that the news outlet may have pre-written the story in anticipation of the event and then published it after the story was officially confirmed.

exact time unknown

Mercury opposite Pallas with no mitigating factors: this is a "perfect" configuration for events that is friendly to peace and human rights, though the interaction of this chart with the charts of affected individuals and organizations may sometimes tell a different story. The intersecting square from Chiron suggests wounding/healing/adjustment relating to ethics.

Sun conjunct Mars in Cancer, semisquare Venus conjunct Jupiter in Leo: action/contention in the cultural sphere at odds with the current zeitgeist regarding the expression of love.

Venus and Jupiter conjunct in Leo, (probably) on the Ascendant: ideology regarding romantic relationships is at work.

Retrograde Saturn (probably) in the Fourth House in Scorpio semisquare Pluto (probably) in the Fifth House in Capricorn: Saturn here may represent conservative cultural values on sex, at odds with the Plutonian power of the State asserting itself in the (Capricorn) structure of romantic relations.

Mercury (probably) in the Tenth House sesquiquadrate the Moon in Libra in the Third House, quincunx Pluto, trine Neptune in the Seventh: Mercury in the Tenth may represent the voice of authority, speaking on how the culture treats relationships (Moon in Libra), the role of power in the realm of romance (Pluto in the Fifth), and the dissolving (perhaps) of "marriage" itself (Neptune in the Seventh). At least as the conservatives see it...

Grand Trine: Venus/Jupiter in Leo, Uranus in Aries (probably) in the Ninth House, and Pallas in the Fourth House. More of the same messages as from much of the rest of the chart: a shock or breakthrough in the law (Uranus in the Ninth) regarding love relationships (Venus/Jupiter in Leo) and involving ethics (Pallas).

Congratulations to the LGBTQ crowd for a significant victory -- with the warning, of course, that what the State grants it may also take away. Conservatives have received yet another lesson that, in the end, the State is not their friend.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Let's assume for a minute that gun control actually works to deter crime (from my research it does not, but we're pretending it does for this exercise). Let's also assume that reducing the number of African Americans murdered by gun crime is a major social priority (libertarians oppose all initiation of violence, so we're all fine with this). Finally, let's assume that any new gun control measures that happen right now can't go as far as a full-on gun ban but must be some kind of partial/conditional ban for political reasons (I don't think any reasonable person sees full population disarmament happening in America very soon).

It is an indisputable fact that the vast majority of African American gunshot victims are shot by other African Americans. Therefore, given this fact and our three assumptions above (which I think is fair to say that most liberals accept), there is only one "reasonable" gun control action available to the government:

Disarm the African-Americans.

This is, of course, a horrifically bad idea. It is also the most logical one if we accept the notion that gun control legislation saves lives.

For the record, I do not agree with the idea of State gun control. I believe all Americans regardless of race, gender, etc. who can be armed should be armed. It's harder to shoot people who can shoot back.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

I am taking the liberty of proposing a birth time of around 3pm, which would put Pallas in the Eighth (weakening the ethical structure even more than already indicated) and Jupiter and the North Node in the Fourth (which would be consistent with race-based ideology). There may be other possible times which would generate similar effects, but this is the lowest-hanging-fruit.

There is always a transiting Pluto-to-Pallas trigger on the charts of spree killers when they go off. Here we have transiting Pluto square progressed Pallas.

The vast majority of persons with these natal chart features and undergoing this type of transit do not commit murder. We as a society can reduce the number of these incidents by fostering a gun-friendly culture (so that victims can shoot back, thereby dis-incentivizing mass shootings by making them more dangerous for shooters) and by increasing public awareness of the dangers of psychoactive pharmaceuticals (nearly all mass shooters take them -- before this type of drug was common there were few mass shootings).

Saturday, June 20, 2015

A man using employing a car and later a knife as a murder weapon has killed at least three and seriously injured more than 30, in a murderous spree in Graz, Austria. A highly motivated killer can do as much damage using other implements as with a firearm, revealing a serious flaw in "gun control" logic.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Obamafought Congressional Democrats today in his Republican-aided crusade to pass the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" legislation. The contents of the legislation are secret and unknown to most members of Congress. For all they (and we) know, the contents could well be treasonous and destructive to America. This possibility normally does not stop our overlords from passing new legislation, but for some reason Obama's own party seems to have "grown a pair" and is obstructing the legislation. Kudos to them, and a pox on the Republicans who by supporting Obama have shown that they care nothing for principle.

The focal point today is the US Mars in Gemini in the Seventh, suggesting action and/or communication regarding foreign entities. The transiting Sun and Mars are conjunct the US Mars today, suggesting much action and/or a fight. This is much exacerbated by transiting Pallas square transiting Chiron, suggesting ethical difficulty, which with the US Mars and transiting Sun and Mars form a tight T-square.

Transiting Venus is conjunct the US North Node in the Eighth, suggesting that financial destiny is highlighted today. The transiting South Node in the US Fourth House is trine the US North Nodein the Eighth and transiting Venus, suggesting that something may be lost, possibly by Eighth-House corporate financial forces and the like.

Of course, Pluto is still opposite the US Sun and progressed Jupiter (the Ascendant ruler). Big changes for the US may still be afoot.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Consider a gathering of people, as small or as large, as temporary or as persistent as you please. It may be two humans meeting on a street corner or a nation of billion, or anything in between. If there is no force/fraud/coercion in this gathering, then no one in the gathering is being murdered, robbed, raped, defrauded, or otherwise deliberately harmed by any other in the gathering. This doesn't mean everyone is happy with their lot or getting all their needs and desires met. It does, however, mean that all interactions are consensual and no interactions are considered harmful by any parties involved (known to economists as "Pareto superior" transactions). Generally, this will mean that all interactions will generate some positive benefit for the involved parties and zero harm. The technical name for a persistent version of this state of affairs is "Anarchy": the absence of coerced authority.

Now let us, as humans are wont do to, introduce force. One of our two humans on the street corner produces a gun and demands money from the other; a party of humans in a geographical region declares themselves "the State" and proceeds to forcibly rob the entire population ("taxation"). Someone ostensibly benefits from this: the recipient of the coerced goods, be the goods a sexual experience for the rapist, or funds for a hospital stay for the recipient of federal healthcare benefits. However, harm has most certainly been done: the pedestrian has been robbed, the man/woman/child has been sexually violated, or the taxpayer has been fleeced. In the context of force, the "good" is questionable (not all recipients of such goods value them enough to be willing to pay for them) and the "bad" is beyond question (the victim's rights have clearly been violated).

In order to justify this introduction of force, we must now prove a case that the desires of the recipient of the goods clearly outweigh the desires of the loser of the goods. This is impossible, because desire is completely subjective and differs from person to person: every human's desire for life, dollars, peace and quiet, etc., has the potential to be different from that of every other human. Even "needs" are extremely difficult to determine: the extreme allergic person may need to live away from all artificially-derived chemicals and the accomplished meditation master may not need much in the way of food, water, or even air. No government is omniscient enough to be able to accurately determine who needs what. The final determinant of "need" is the person himself, and that person's need must weigh against all the needs of every other person in our theoretical gathering if resources are finite. In a peaceful society, this weighing occurs through voluntary trade. Every participant in the market fulfills his own needs by exchanging goods and services that fulfill the needs of others. All transactions are win-win because in a peaceful society, no transaction occurs unless all participants perceive that they will be better off (or at least not worse off) afterwards.

There has never been a logical proof of the need for institutionalized force. There cannot be one without first relying on one or more massive assumptions. The only way to justify force is to set aside pure rationality and assume that the value system of one or more humans is superior to that of all others. The Marxist who subscribes to the labor theory of value assumes that the labor of one human is automatically equal in value to the labor of all others. The Right-wing Fascist assumes that "national unity" trumps the needs and desires of any number of hapless citizens. The welfare statist assumes that the value of coercively distributed capital to the society exceeds the value of consensually-distributed capital. But again, value is subjective and individual. Any other definition of value can only come into existence by assuming that one is a super-human moral authority and that one's value system is therefore more valid than all others.

There is only one logical way to coexist with other humans who, each being unique, each possesses a different value system. This way is to acknowledge that there is no universal value system. The way to coexist is to pursue that which we consider of value, be it collecting vintage cars or helping the homeless, without interfering in the ability of others to do the same. In this example the car-collector (if not a criminal) must provide a great measure of value to his fellow humans to support his habit; the homeless-helper in comparison is funneling resources towards persons that often do not produce resources themselves, thereby reducing the amount of resources available to the collective as a whole. From an economic standpoint, the car-collector does more overall good to society than does the charity-monger. To favor forceful interference in the peaceful interactions of either person, however, requires an equal measure of illogic. To simultaneously help ourselves and our fellow humans, a framework of non-coercion, of consensual interaction and the banishment of non-consensual interaction, is the only solution. This excludes the possibility of creating a state as we know it today.

Today's rant is brought to you by the planet Pallas. I'm sure one of those brainy people at mises.org has already made the same case in a more convincing fashion.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Many liberals are smart enough to see that Hillary Clinton is bad news, but haven't done quite enough homework into comparative socio-political systems to see that Socialism leads to disaster. The members of this faction, to which I belonged only a decade ago, are currently salivating over the presidential candidacy of openly-Socialist Bernie Sanders.

time unknown

Pallas/EthicsLibertarian: Pallas sextile Mercury, ruled by Jupiter (square the Nodes and Sun).Authoritarian: Pallas trine Pluto which is semisquare Pallas ruler Jupiter.
This is strong on authoritarianism (you'd have to be, to be Socialist) but the Nodal square to Pallas' ruler is a wildcard which can strongly mitigate the Pluto effect. This is a "whistleblower" pattern a la Edward Snowden, and there's a chance that Sanders actually has a conscience.

Moon/CultureConservative: North Node quincunx Moon ruler Mars, and possibly Moon.Liberal: Neptune quincunx Moon ruler Mars, and possibly Moon.
Strongly mixed signatures tend to veer to the liberal side of things, and may be an "environmentalist" signature.

There probably isn't a Bloodbath Formula here, which in my book helps put him ahead of everyone but Rand Paul in the race for the throne. Sanders as President might get suckered into enabling the military-industrial complex, but I suspect he's not an active supporter.

Sanders' political Achilles' Heel might be the fact that he has, like an idiot, publicly written about rape fantasies. If Sanders gains any true traction, this is probably what Hillary and the Establishment will use to grind him into a fine red paste. As for the psychology that drives such politically-inconvenient impulses, I would say it's the clear Rapist Formula on his chart:

We usually get killers in the White House. "Rape Fantasy Guy" would probably be an improvement.

North Node conjunct/parallel Neptune, both conjunct Sun, all in Virgo: a man whose destiny is to represent a dream of how things should work.

Mercury trine Saturn/Uranus conjunction: giving voice to rebellion.

You know things are fucked when an openly-Socialist, semi-closeted misogynist is one the better candidates in the presidential race. But, as our Islamic brethren say, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Give 'em hell, Bernie.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Actor/comedian Vince Vaughn has been publicly libertarian for years now. This does not seem to have kept him from landing high-profile roles. We'll see if this remains the case now that the actor has bravely and unequivocally defended the right to bear arms. I actually don't recall having seen him in any movies myself, so I won't comment on how his chart reflects the types of roles he plays. We're just here to see "why", in astrological terms, he's a libertarian.

Pallas/EthicsLibertarian: Pallas parallel Mercury, novile Sun, and ruled by Uranus which is opposite Sun. Authoritarian: Pallas quincunx Pluto.
The Pluto connection is not weak, but the Mercury/Sun connections are quite a bit stronger.

Venus/Second-House/EconomicsCapitalist: Venus novile North Node.Collectivist: Neptune in the Second House, quindecile Mars, ruler of Venus.
The psychology here leans pretty far Left in terms of the perception of value. This is very common if not ubiquitous for creative types. Vaughn is not a libertarian because he has a "capitalist psychology" a la Ayn Rand -- he's a libertarian because his logical/ethical faculties are strong enough to overcome his psychological tendencies.

Moon/Fourth-House/Culture
This is inconclusive, suggesting that we don't really have a culture-warrior here. However, Pluto is square the Moon and quincunx Venus which hints at a potential "feminist" tendency which might be tempered by the strong Pallas. Were Pallas a bit weaker, Vaughn would probably be a very run-of-the-mill Hollywood liberal.

I'm looking forward to seeing Vaughn in "True Detective", as I don't usually go see the comedies he seems to regularly do.

Monday, June 1, 2015

I should have written about this one before. A quick web search revealed to me only one astrologer who has, at least in a freely-available internet format. I will not be as verbose as this seemingly lone writer, but will spew my usual staccato barrage of data-points for the attention-span-challenged. Of whom I am one.

Now that a recent court ruling declares some of the Patriot-Act-authorized spying to be illegal, the recent expiration of some of the related clauses makes the Patriot Act a timely subject. Despite Rand Paul's heroic blocking of the Senate vote which would have re-authorized domestic spying, re-authorization through the "USA Freedom Act" is inevitable. And, of course, our overlords rarely let something as paltry as legal authorization get in the way of something they want.

Anyone with half a brain knows that the Patriot Act is bad news. This, therefore, tells us about the IQ of most of our overlords in Washington DC. It also calls into question whether our top-down system of government serves us anywhere near as much as it oppresses us. The astrology for the Act is, accordingly, stunningly horrible using the "Libertarian Astrology" analysis methods.

proof that the State is not your friend

Pallas/EthicsLibertarian: Pallas semisquare Sun. Authoritarian: Pallas conjunct Pluto and South Node, ruled by Jupiter which is quincunx Pluto. Pluto is quindecile the North Node, increasing his power.
Very weak on the ethical/libertarian side; extremely strong on the authoritarian/anti-ethical side.

Venus/Second-House/EconomicsCapitalist: None or Venus "squine" North Node.Collectivist: Neptune in the Second House
The anti-capitalist signature is consistent with disregard for private property.

Suggesting that the Patriot Act actually may be lethal in some cases, we have a Bloodbath Formula. The Pallas/Venus configurations above comprise the first two points of the formula. Here are the rest:
3. Venus sextile Pluto.
4. Jupiter, co-ruler of Moon, quincunx Pluto.
5. Sun novile and exactly parallel Pluto.

Pluto in Sagittarius on the Ascendant: power over communications, in your face.

Pluto opposite Saturn on the Descendant: power against foreign authority?

Pluto quincunx Jupiter in Cancer in the Eighth: said power overwhelms any quaint ideas you might have about privacy in your own home.

Sun in the Eleventh square Neptune/Mars conjunction in the Second: power over the masses via secret actions in the realm of private property.

"Thor's Hammer" sesqui-yod with Mercury/Venus and Jupiter against Moon in the Third: money and the mass-communications apparatus versus any impression you might have that your speech is safe in your home.

Uranus in Aquarius in the Third conjunct/parallel Moon in Pisces and trine Mercury: technology applied to communications, disrupting your private home life.